[Reader-list] Second Posting - Caste Violence in Urban Maharashtra: A Study of Worli Riots of Mumbai 1974 - A Breaking Point in Dalit Panthers Movement

[Arvind Kumar]

Second Posting - Caste Violence in Urban Maharashtra: A Study of Worli
Riots of Mumbai 1974 - A Breaking Point in Dalit Panthers Movement


Dalit Panther Manifesto – Some Glimpses and Observations
(Bombay 1973)

Who is a Dalit?

Members of scheduled castes and tribes, neo-Buddhists, the working
people , the landless and poor peasants, woman and all those who are
being exploited politically, economically and in the name of religion.

Who are our friends?

1)	Revolutionary parties set to break down the caste system and class
rule. Left parties that are left in the true sense.
2)	All other sections of society that are suffering due to economic
and political oppression.

Who are our enemies?

1)	Power, wealth, price.
2)	Landlords, capitalists, moneylenders and their lackeys
3)	Those parties who indulge in religious or casteist politics and the
government which depends upon them.

Burning Questions Before Dalits Today

1)	Food, clothing and shelter
2)	Employment, land and untouchability
3)	Social and physical injustice

Our Programmes

1)	The question of landlessness of the Dalit peasants must be resolved
2)	The oppression, exploitation and endemic atrocities on Dalits by
landlords and rich peasants must be destroyed
3)	The wages of landless labourers must be increased
4)	Dalits must be allowed to draw water from public wells
5)	Dalits must live, not outside the village in a separate ghetto but
in the village itself
6)	All means of production must belong to the Dalits
7)	Exploitation by the private capital must cease
8)	Social, cultural and economic exploitation must be removed and
socialism must be built in India
9)	All Dalits must be assured of daily wages
10)	Unemployed Dalits must be given unemployment benefits
11)	All Dalits must be given free education, medical facilities,
housing and good quality cheap grains
12)	When giving employment in educational institutions, the
requirements to declare one's caste and religion must immediately be
removed
13)	The government must stop giving grant to religious institutions
immediately and the wealth of the religious places must be used for
the benefit of Dalits
14)	 Religious and casteist literature must be banned
15)	The division in the army along caste lines must be ended
16)	Black marketers, hoarders, money lenders and all those exploiting
the people economically must be destroyed
17)	The prices of essential commodities must be refunded